A connector assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,877 comprises, a conductive ground bus, for connection to ground wires of at least one electrical cable, and conductive signal contacts for connection to signal wires of at least one electrical cable, the signal contacts being joined to the ground bus, an insulative housing block applied over the contacts, at least a selected one of the contacts being detached from the ground bus, and at least one of the signal contacts remaining joined to the ground bus. The connector assembly is constructed for ease of manufacture. For example, the contacts and the ground bus are joined together in a lead frame to eliminate separate parts. The housing block advantageously holds the contacts in desired positions when the contacts are connected to the wires. The contacts are held on pitch spacings that correspond to the pitch spacings of contact receiving cavities of an insulative housing. The contacts are assembled into the cavities of the housing as a group, rather than as individual contacts.
The contacts on the lead frame, being fabricated of thin metal, are easily deflected to misaligned positions. A concern exits that the contacts will be held by a housing block in these misaligned positions. For example, a housing can be applied over the contacts by injection molding fluent plastic material over portions of the contacts. The solidified plastic material is relied on to hold the contacts in their positions. If the contacts are misaligned while the housing is applied, the contacts will be held by the housing in misaligned positions.
A concern exists that, when the contacts are ready for assembly into contact receiving cavities of the housing, the contacts will be out of alignment with the contact receiving cavities. Some degree of misalignment of the contacts and the cavities would be present, due to dimensional tolerance differences in such contacts and in such cavities. More pronounced misalignment could be present because of difficulties experienced in applying the housing block to the contacts, as described in the previous paragraph of text. The misaligned contacts can be damaged by forced insertion within the cavities. In addition, the contacts can be misaligned while in the cavities. Thus, there is a need to prevent damage to contacts during insertion in the cavities, and to reduce the manufacturing time expended to assure careful insertion of the contacts. Further, an need exists to prevent rotation, a form of misalignment, of the contacts in the cavities.